My old Toshiba Satellite died so now, I'm looking for a replacement. I already have a netbook that I bring with me everyday, but it's not very good for productivity. The underpowered processor, small screen and tiny keyboard aren't exactly conducive to sanity.

I'm looking for something relatively light in the 13~14" range with good battery life all while remaining under $1000. A built-in optical drive is preferred but I guess I can live without one. It doesn't need to be fast but the processor should be able to handle at least Hulu 360p fullscreen.

I've seen some of the CULV laptops, namely the ASUS UL, Acer Timeline and MSI X340. How is the performance on those laptops? How would they compare to, say, a Celeron 430 1.8GHz (Conroe-L) or a Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0GHz (Merom)?

Not sure if you are in North America or not--if not I would think the 14" Timeline with Intel dual core would be the way to go. Reports I've seen indicate the single-core has trouble with HD Youtube content (aka Flash is a piece of crap).

Unfortunately they don't seem to really offer the dual-core models of the 14 & 15" in N.A.

Not sure if you are in North America or not--if not I would think the 14" Timeline with Intel dual core would be the way to go. Reports I've seen indicate the single-core has trouble with HD Youtube content (aka Flash is a piece of crap).

Unfortunately they don't seem to really offer the dual-core models of the 14 & 15" in N.A.

Yep, North America, USA specifically. Haven't seen any dual-core versions of the Acer Timeline, though. All the ones I saw either had the SU2700 or SU3500 and as far as I know, those are single-core. I was eyeing the Asus UL30A with SU7300 but when I got home last night, Amazon was already out of stock. I'm hoping they're just clearing stock to make way for versions with Windows 7 pre-installed.

When someone needs a laptop for use with professional graphics work, the display is a critical aspect. It needs to provide a bright, high color display that can most accurately reflect the final graphic work. This is where the Dell Studio XPS 16 with its LED backlit 16-inch display panel really excel. It provides some of the best brightness and color possible in the laptop display. While the more expensive 1920x1080 display provides a better experience, the lower 1366x768 display is still quite good. Like most new laptop displays, it features a glossy coating that produces a lot of reflections. Performance and features are also quite good with Core 2 Duo processors and DDR3 memory. Battery life is a bit lower than average.

Apple MacBook Pro 15.4-inch
AppleApple's laptop certainly isn't inexpensive, but it makes up for it with strong performance, excellent design, durable chassis and being one of the most portable 15.4-inch laptops on the market. The 15-inch MacBook Pro stands out because of its solid block aluminum case design that helps keep the weight down yet makes it very sturdy. Performance is strong thanks to the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, DDR3 memory and hybrid graphics system that can switch between an integrated or dedicated processor depending upon the performance demands. The biggest downside beyond the price is the storage and memory amounts are below average and it has fewer USB ports than Windows based PCs.

MSI GT627-216US 15.4-inch
Gaming on a laptop doesn't necessarily mean an extremely large and heavy design that costs thousands of dollars. The MSI GT627-216US offers up a laptop that is just 1.2-inches thick, weighs 5.6 pounds yet comes equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo processor, DDR3 memory, 15.4-inch display and an NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS graphics processor with 1GB of video memory. This allows the laptop to play all the current PC games without issues up to its 1280x800 resolution panel. It can even go higher when using external displays. And the best part, the price tag is under $1100. Some may be disappointed by the limited performance of the sound or the fair amount of keyboard flex, but it is hard to beat the gaming performance for the price.

Thanks for the input but none of those laptops fit my requirements - 13"~14" display, light, good battery life and has a price tag under $1000. Anyhow, I've already ordered the ASUS UL30A-X5 from Amazon. It's scheduled to arrive today.

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